Azerbaijan GP: Williams Martini drops down the order in FP2

By Andrew Hooper
April 28 2018

After an encouraging Friday morning practice session the Williams Martini team saw its drivers drop down the times after the second Friday practice for the 2018 Azerbaijan GP. Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin would finish in 14th and 17th in what was an unevntful session. Lance would be heard on his radio frustrated with the handling of his car. Despite having dropped down the times the Williams drivers were still part of a very close midfield group who were all close together.

Williams
Martini Azerbaijan GP Friday 2nd Practice

Team Summary:
After an encouraging opening Friday practice session the Williams team would get
both drivers out very early. After some early runs it would be Magnussen
quickest with a 1m:45.248. But Ricciardo would go quicker with a 1m:43.947
running on the supersoft tyre. Grosjean was now second followed by Ocon and
Vettel. Hamilton was now third but on the soft tyre. Twenty minutes into the
session and the Williams drivers were 15th and 18th. Hamilton would improve
to be second followed by Ocon, Magnussen, Perez, Grosjean, Vettel and
Vandoorne 8th.

Ricciardo would set a quicker fastest time with a 1m:43.512, while Bottas
would move into second using the ultrasoft tyre. Hamilton was now third but
had set a soft tyre time. Verstappen was able to set a time good enough for
third with Vettel fourth. But Sainz would jump up to third using the
ultrasoft tyre. On the ultrasoft tyre Hamilton would be fourth while for Red
Bull Ricciardo was on a very quick lap and would set a 1m:43.017 to improve
his quickest time. Hamilton was now third behind Bottas and ahead of Sainz
and Verstappen. Ricciardo was able to improve with a 1m:42.816 with
Raikkonen now second also on the ultrasoft tyre. A further improvement from
Ricciardo with a 1m:42.795 with Raikkonen second followed by Verstappen,
Bottas, Hamilton, Alonso, Ocon, Sainz, Magnussen, and Hulkenberg tenth.

After their ultrasoft tyre runs the Williams drivers were 14th and 17th
having lost pace over their earlier session. The entire field had all set
ultrasoft tyre times. With just over thirty minutes remaining the teams
would start their longer runs on the ultrasoft tyre. The final stages of the
session would various tyres been tested with Williams having Sergey complete
a run on the soft tyre while Lance remained on the ultrasoft. Despite having
dropped down the times the Williams drivers were part of a very close
midfield group who were all close together in their times.

Lance Stroll:
Lance would also come out but was on the supersoft tyre. His first lap was
slow as he prepared for his first flying lap. His next lap was a 1m:52.053
to be 13th. Lance continued to set quite slow times currently 17th. Lance
would improve with a 1m:45.606 to be tenth dropping to 11th. Lance would pit
briefly coming back out currently 15th. Lance would pit returning to his
garage after a nine lap run. Lance had complained about traffic saying "Oh
my god! I can't do a lap right now." In his pit Lance would drop to 18th.
Lance would follow his team-mate out using the ultrasoft tyre. Lance was not
able to improve now 19th. But like his team-mate after a few laps he would
improve to be 14th with a 1m:44.654. Lance would come on the radio saying
that his car was undriveable with issues on corner entry. Despite his
difficulties Lance would continue to lap the circuit now with a time of
1m:44.459 but still 14th. After a nine lap run Lance would pit. He would
return and the final part of the session would see him complete a longer run
on the ultrasoft tyre.

Sergey
Sirotkin:
Sergey would again be first out on the track running on the soft tyre.
Sergey would set a 1m:47.647 to be seventh, dropping to ninth then twelfth.
He would improve to be tenth with a 1m:46.331 dropping to eleventh then
13th. After a ten lap run Sergey would pit currently 17th. Sergey would drop
to 20th as he sat in his pit. With thirty minutes of the session complete
Sergey was back out this time on the ultrasoft tyre. Sergey would set a
1m:45.822 but this was only good enough for 19th. Surprisingly Sergey would
improve with a 1m:45.007 to be 14th having done quite a few laps on the
ultrasoft tyres. He would drop to 17th and would pit. After a lengthy stop
Sergey would return using the used ultrasoft tyres for what no doubt will be
a long run on these tyres. Sergey would complete a run on the ultrasoft tyre
switching to soft tyres to complete the session.